Barnaby Joyce dodges Shoalwater land grab grilling

Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in Rockhampton to announce specialised funding for research and development in the Australian beef industry. Photo: Chris Ison / The Morning BulletinChris Ison ROK140416cjoyce6

THE AUSTRALIAN Labor Party have continued questioning Liberal National Party members through Question Time this week about when they first knew about compulsory land acquisitions.

It started with the Defence Minister Marise Payne being questioned on Monday.

During Question Time in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon tried to put the Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, on the spot about when he first learned about compulsory land acquisitions for the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area expansion.

Mr Joyce was immediately protected by the Leader of the House Christopher Pyne, who tried to deflect the question to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

The Speaker allowed the question to stand and was happy for the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to answer the question.

However, the Opposition Leader of the House, Tony Burke raised a point of order where he highlighted that there a number of times when questions had been put to the Minister for Agriculture by his own party where the only connection to his portfolio was about the outcome on agricultural land. He said this was the first time the Opposition had raised such a question.

The Speaker then asked the question to be repeated, but the second time around he chose to rule the question out of order.

The Bulletin sought comment from Mr Joyce who was in parliament yesterday but had not received a response by time of print.